1405 - Acts 26:1-20 "I saw the light...The Apostle Paul".

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

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Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1405. Today we're in Acts chapter 6. Paul the Apostle is honored to stand before Herod Agrippa. Herod Agrippa, the great grandson of Herod the Great. His name is actually Marcus Julius Agrippa. And Paul was glad to stand before him because he knew that he knew about the Jews. He had a background in the Jews. So he is going to share with him the wonderful message of Jesus and about his conversion. And in this passage we have the most description given of what his conversion was like on the road to Damascus. We get an idea that he said more than Saul saw, why are you persecuting me? He actually commissioned Paul, who was then Saul of Tarsus. He commissioned him to a specific task and called him to be a particular kind of servant that Paul refers to himself throughout the New Testament as. If you were on trial you had an opportunity to defend yourself. So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things which I am accused by the Jews. Especially because you are an expert, this is what I was talking about, especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently. Now Paul knew that he had a story to tell. You see, that's what the gospel is. It's the good news, it's the best story that has ever been told about the greatest person who ever lived, about the greatest event that ever took place in relation to our salvation, and the salvation of the universe. And now I stand and am judged for the hope, for the assurance, for the expectation of the promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise our twelve tribes earnestly serving God night and day, they were expecting to gain. In other words, life after death. If in this life, Paul said, we have hope only, then we are of all men most miserable. Now most Americans and Westerners wouldn't think that because we live a life of great luxury and wealth, and even the poorest among us are better than those that live in other countries many times. We have a whole lot to say and think about this life. This was not the case and is not the case for most people around the world. And this life's going to end, and it will end tragically if we don't know Jesus, because we'll spend a Christless eternity abandoned in a dark, black, fiery place. You say, Well, that seems to be contradictive. Well, it's beyond what our comprehension is because the Bible presents hell as a place of total separation from God, of light, of anything which is pleasing, it's going to be torment. And if you go there, you'll go by your own choice, not God's. He says to this promise our twelve tribes earnestly serving God day and night. We were hoping to attain to this resurrection. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I was accused by the Jews. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? You see, Agrippa heard this all of his life. Indeed I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Now don't miss what was just said in the last paragraph. Paul said The reason I'm here is because I brought up the resurrection of the dead and it caused a commotion and a ruckus and a great fight, and they were about to tear me to pieces in the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, and that's why I'm here. It's for the hope of the resurrection. It's what our very forefathers thought about, but the Sadducees, the liberals in the group, they don't even believe in the resurrection. And so he knew that Agrippa knew about this. He said, I was persecuting those that were followers of Jesus. Verse ten. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to slander, to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. You see, Paul was in a rage. Why? Because he was under deep conviction. We know that because of what Jesus confronted him with, and later in his testimony that he was one that was standing holding the garments of those that stoned Stephen, and he never was able to get away from that. And in verse twelve it says, While I was thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me, and those who journeyed with me, they all saw it. When we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against these goads. So I said unto him, Lord, who are you? And in the book of Acts what we get is a summary. And he said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting. But then in verse sixteen through this entire paragraph, he tells the rest of the story, which is fascinating to me. This is what Jesus said to Saul after he said, Why are you persecuting me? I'm Jesus. But he said, But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose to make you a hooperates, a minister, a servant, an underrower, a galley slave. From now on you're going to be my slave. And the other word that's used most often by Paul is the word bond slave, doas. That's one who voluntarily stays after his slavery is over. You remember this in the book of Leviticus. If a man served his time as a slave, and if indeed after he was freed from slavery he wanted to not leave, then he could go to the master and say, I don't want to leave. I love you. My family loves you. You've been good to us. We're doing better with you than we could ever do on our own. Let me serve you the rest of my life. And the master would make sure that that's what he wanted. And if he did, then he was a marked man from then on. He would take him to a doorpost, and he would put a certain mark in his ear. That was the mark of the bond servant, the bond slave. Then that man would be marked all the rest of his days. And that's an interesting thing that as you read about the bond slave, remember four out of five people that walked down the streets of almost any major city in the Greco Roman world were slaves. And there were all different kinds of slaves. The bond slave always got the notice. Why? Because when people saw his ear marked, and it was very clear, they didn't say, Oh, he must be a loyal and faithful servant. They said always, oh my, what a master he has. He must have a wonderful master. Wouldn't it be nice to be serving a master like that? And that's what Paul called himself in relation to Jesus. He called himself a bond slave. And he said, I'm going to make you a bond slave. I'm going to make you a galley slave. This is what Jesus said to him, Paul. There were several words he could have used. He used this one. And a witness. That is a martyr. Both of the things which you have seen, that is what he has witnessed, what he's been involved in, what he has seen on the road to Damascus, and the things that I will yet to reveal to you. And he did that during a period of concentrated study with the Lord. Verse 17. He says, Paul, I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Goim, from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you. That is, Jews and Gentiles, but in particular it was to the Gentiles. Why was Paul sent? To make them Jewish? No. To make them of a political persuasion? No. To get them to dress a certain way, to get them to act a certain way, to get them to perform certain rituals? No, no, no. This is what we sometimes miss. For years and years when missionaries would go to foreign lands, it seemed as though they were trying to make those people like them. You see, people don't necessarily need our way of life as far as dress and our language and those kinds of things. You know what they need? They need to have God open their eyes. And we are part of that process. We are the messengers. So he said, I'm sending you to open their eyes for this reason, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the authority and the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who are set apart in me. He said, Listen, Paul, what I want you to do is go tell the story of what I've done. And if you do that, you will open their eyes and they will see that they don't have to live under the power and the dominion of sin. They don't have to live under the power and dominion of Satan, the adversary, the enemy. No, they can be set free from the power of Satan. They can be turned from darkness to light. And if they do this, they will receive the forgiveness of sins, and they will have an inheritance among those who are set apart by me by faith. All the way through this particular recounting of the story, it is amazing how Paul gives one detail after another that were not given so comprehensively in other places. And then he goes on to say, Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to what this heavenly vision was, but I declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region to Judea, and then to the Gentiles. And what was it that he told them that they should repent, they should metanoia, they should change their mind, that changes their direction in life, that changes their purpose in life. That's the word to repent, to change your mind, which is not just intellectual ascent and how you think about Jesus. It's how you think about Jesus in relation to your own sin, your salvation, how that's obtained, all of the things. Then he goes on to explain what he means. That means to turn to God and to change your lifestyle, to do works that show you have repented. This is the same message that John the Baptist had. He said, Bring forth fruits, repent and bring forth fruits. The King James says meat for repentance. We don't talk like that anymore. What he said was if you're going to receive the Messiah, you need to turn from your sin and your thinking and what you're doing. You need to make an about face of that and act like it. You need to talk like it. You need to live like it. Because God will change your life. Not only will He forgive your sin, but He will deliver you from the power of Satan. You don't have to live like you once did. We were once children of disobedience. That was our lifestyle, that was our habit. Everybody messes up from time to time. And when you are saved, that doesn't mean you become sinless, but it should mean you sin less and less and less. We shouldn't be wrestling with the same things we were two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, twenty years ago. There should be maturity, there should be a breaking free. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. This is what Paul was telling the great grandson of Herod the Great that tried to kill the Lord Jesus when he was a baby. Now Paul is telling his great grandson the words of life. Think about it. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

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Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.